.-to. 











'^ -n^o^ 






■i-' V 

























^. * 








^ 











jO-T-^ -.^fcS?^; ^-iq. --s^?^!^- lO-T- 

















V-^' 



^^^9^^ 



^ 







r ^^ 




f'* ..0 












.« 


































• ^<?-' 




'-^o^ 

^^°^ 












-p. 

















4 o 
■(J? ^ 




^o-n^, .J 



\^ .N 



4 o 



AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS, 



1776--1876. 



J. G. BUTLER, T>. D. 



AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 



ARE WE A CHRISTIAN NATION? 



MEMORIAL CHURCH, 

FIRST LORD'S DAY IN THE NEW CENTURY, 

BY THE PASTOR, 

J. G. BUTLER, D. D., 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

[Reprinted from the Quar. Review of the Evan. Luth. Church.] 



GETTYSBURG : 

J. E. WIBLE PRINTER, CORNER OP WASHINGTON AND NORTH STREETS. 

1876. 



F" 



AN HOUTl WITH THE FATHERS. 



Jer. 17 : 19 — 27: "If ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, 
to bi'ing in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath 
day, but hallow the Sabbath day * * then this city shall remain 
forever. * * But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sab- 
bath day * * then will I kindle a Are in the gates thereof and it 
shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched." 

Is. 69 : 12: "The nation and kingdom that will not serve Thee shall 
perish." 

Ps. 147 : 20: "He has not dealt so with any nation." 

Ps. 144 : 15: "Happy is that people whose God is the Lord." 

We have just entered upon the second century of our na- 
tional life. Shall we celebrate another centennial ! The an- 
swer to this question gathers around the moral and religious 
character of the Republic. It was our purpose to look espe- 
cially at the relation of the Sabbath to us as a people, when 
we began to live a hundred years ago. This is one of the 
objective points of attack, as we enter upon our second hun- 
dred years. But whilst the record of our early life furnishes 
all that the most Puritanic Sabbatarian can desire, thought 
has broadened, and we propose to look at the religious and 
Christian and Protestant soil, out of which our institutions 
grow, as the rich fruitage of a wise and godly planting. The 
world's history furnishes no record like ours, clear and em- 
phatic in all that goes to make up a Biblical, Christian, Pro- 
testant nationality. 

Antedating our national birth, and going back to the dis- 
covery of the continent by Columbus, Roman Catholic as he 



* For an exhaustive presentation of this subject the reader is refer- 
red to the "Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of 
the U. S.," a most interesting volume, by Kev. B. F. Morris, and from 
which most of the facts of this article are drawn. 



4 AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 

was, as tlie now world burst upon his vision tlie voice of 
praise and thanksgiving rose from his ship, even before his 
feet pressed the new soih His first act upon landing, was an 
act of worship, consecrating this world, with all its inliCrent 
wealth, to Jehovah Jesus, In liis will, Columbus enjoins 
upon his son Diego to spare no pains, and to provide teachers 
and devout persons who shall labor to make Christians of 
the natives. Our present and prospective greatness and glory 
never crossed the vision of the immoVtal explorer of the fif- 
teenth century. 

The Pilgrim fathers embarking from England to Holland, 
more than a hundred years after the discovery by Columbus, 
and from Holland for America in 1620, were animated with 
but one controlling thought — God — Jesus — the Gospel — re- 
ligious freedom — their own vine and fig tree under wliich 
they might worship as their Bible and conscience dictated. 
Their motives were }iurely and intensely religious. Gover- 
nor Bradford, of the colony, says, "upon their departure from 
Holland they set apart a day of solemn humiliation with 
their pastor, whose text upon the occasion was Ezra 8 : 21, 
"I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might 
afilict ourselves before God and seek of him a right way for 
our little ones and our substance." After the sermon, "the 
rest of the time was spent in pouring out their prayers to 
the Lord, with great fervency, mixed with abundance of 
tears." They were accompanied by most of the brethren to 
Delft-Haven, where the ship lay to receive them. Winslow 
says, "never people parted more sweetly, * * seeking, not 
rashly but deliberately, the mind of God in prayer, and find- 
ing his gracious presence with us, and his blessing upon us." 

Upon the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock, 
Dec. 22, 1620, the first act of the Puritans was one of devo- 
tion. Upon bended knees they ottered thanksgiving to God, 
and by prayer, in the name and for the sake of Christ, they 
took possession of the continent. That which now gladdens 
our eyes and our heart, as a people, is not the heritage of in- 
fidelity, but of faith — faith in God, faith in Christ, faith in 



AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 5 

the Bible, faith in the Church, faith in the Sabbath — the 
faith of men and women made alive by the Holy Ghost. 

The form of government which these Fathers now insti- 
tute in this new land was framed in the cabin of the May- 
flower before landing, and was ratified under the solemnities 
of prayer. This compact says : "Having undertaken for the 
glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, * * 
we solemnly, in the presence of God and one another, cove- 
nant," &c., &c. Bancroft says : "This was the birth of con- 
stitutional liberty." The soil in which the tree, under whose 
wide-spreading branches we rest, was planted, was consecra- 
ted by prayer and watered with the tears of the children of 
God. Is our land a Christian land ? Has the God-fearing 
citizen rights which all men are bound to respect ? 

In 1643, the Colonies of Massachusetts, New Plymouth, 
Connecticut, and New Haven formed a confederation, in 
which they affirm that "we all came into these parts of 
America wHth the same end and ayme, namely to advance 
the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ * * and for pre- 
serving and propagating the truth and liberties of the Gos- 
pel." Charles I., in the Charter, granted to Massachusetts in 
164<), enjoins the colonists "to winn and invite the natives to 
the knowledge of the only true God and Saviour of mankind 
and the Christian faith * * ." When Charles II. de- 
manded a surrender of their charter, and with it their inde- 
pendence as a free Christian commonwealth, the remonstrance 
of the colonists, and their resolve, breathe the spirit of the 
axiom that "resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." As 
in apostolic days, in this trial time, our fatliers appointed a 
day of fasting, and laid the matter before the Lord. They 
had faith in the power of prayer. Indeed so closely were 
God and truth interwoven into the very texture of early colo- 
nial life, that the civil court, when convened for the transac- 
tion of ordinary business, spent a portion of each day in 
prayer — six elders praying and a minister preaching a ser- 
mon. A daily prayer-meeting in a court room ! Have we 
advanced upon the ancients — forward or backward ? 

As we run through the history of these colonies, now in- 



6 AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 

creasing in imniber, the same spirit of simple faith, as a 
golden chain, binds and illumines and beautifies and sancti- 
fies them all. In 1639, when the people of Connecticut met 
in a large barn to lay the foundations of their civil and reli- 
gious structure, a sermon, from the text "Wisdom hath 
builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars," was 
preached by the pastor, Mr. Davenport. A constitution was 
formed in which the people, after prayer^ entered into combi- 
nation to "preserve and maintain the liberty and purity of 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ which we now possess." Among 
their fundamental principles, they say that "the Scriptures 
hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of 
all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and 
men," &c. The same spirit animates the early history of 
Rhode Island and New Hampshire. When in 1682, William 
Penn assumed the governorship of the new territory, a char- 
ter for which had been granted by Charles II., he avowed his 
purpose to be, the institution of a civil government "upon the 
basis of the Bible, and to administer it in the fear of the Lord 
— so to serve the truth and the people of the Lord, that an 
example may be set to the nations." The preamble to the 
first legislative act of the new colony, passed at Chester, 1682, 
says : "Whereas the glory of Almighty God and the good of 
all mankind is the end of all good government," &c. "All 
persons who confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and 
eternal God * * who hold themselves obliged in con- 
science to live peaceably and justly," &c. — have guaranteed 
to them protection and freedom from jDcrsecution," &c. Gov- 
ernor Penn also originated the law, "according to the good 
example of the primitive Christians," requiring the people 
every first day of the week, commonly called the Lord's day, 
"to abstain from their ordinarj^ labor — masters, parents, 
children, and servants, that they may better dispose them- 
selves to read the Scriptures of truth at home, or to frequent 
such meetings for religious worship abroad, as may best suit 
their respective persuasions." 

The colonial legislature of New York, 1665, passed a law 
ordering a church to be built in each parish capable of hold- 



AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 7 

• 

ing two hundred persons, that ministers of every church shall 
preach every Sunday," &c., «S:;c. They also enacted "that Sun- 
day is not to be profaned by traveling, by laborers or vicious 
persons, and church wardens to report twice a year all misde- 
meanors, such as swearing. Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness," 
&c. 

The question of Bible and prayer in our public schools, is 
one of the agitating questions of the present day. In at least 
one locality in l!^ew York in colonial times, it was required 
at the opening of the school that one of the children should 
read the morning prayer as it stands in the catechism, and 
close with the prayer before dinner, and in the afternoon the 
same." "The evening school must begin with the Lord's 
Prayer and close by singing a Psalm." The school teacher 
"must instruct the children in the common prayers and the 
questions and answers of the catechism on Wednesdays and 
Saturdays, to enable them to say them better in the Church" 
on the Lord's day. The teacher was to "read the ten com- 
mandments and the twelve articles of faith, and then sett the 
psalm" at church meetings — besides perform sundry other 
like duties. There was but one mind among the colonists in 
reference to the Scriptures in the schools. 

In this search we cannot notice in detail the facts showing 
the same religious spirit animating the birth of all the colo- 
nies, only here and there we give a fact bearing upon the 
point. The very first Act of the Assembly of Virginia re- 
quired every settlement in which the people worship God to 
build a house to be devoted exclusively to that purpose. The 
second Act imposed a penalty of a pound of tobacco for ab- 
sence from divine service on Sunday, and another law prohib- 
ited any man from disposing of his tobacco until the minister's 
poi'tion was paid." — If all absentees were fi.ned now, there 
would not be many empty church treasuries. The men who 
make the Lord's portion the last, and not the first, may learn 
their duty both from this colonial Virginia law and from 
their Bible, if they read it carefully. "Honor the Lord with 
thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase." 



8 AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 

A promise follows this command from the mouth of God. 
We need a revival of Bible doing religion. 

The Educational history of our grand Republic is in keep- 
ing with its civil and ecclesiastical, if indeed we can define 
the limits of the one or the other. The kingdom of God 
was the overshadowing and all-animating thought with these 
builders. The church and state, religion and education, were 
not divorced, at least in the spirit of the building or of the 
builders. "Except the Lord build the house they labor in 
vain that build it," was the one faith article of these grand 
old heroes. Intelligence and piety were the two strong pil- 
lars upon which they reared the great fabric, and hence we 
have a rich educational history also. Possiblj* our cotempor- 
ary laborers, often discouraged, may gain inspiration and 
strength by a review of this page of our nation's life. Our 
beginnings here, as in everything else, as in all life, were 
weak and small. But life^ when from God and Truth, is irre- 
sistible, immortal. In 1635, free schools were inaugurated in 
Boston, whose example was rapidl}-^ followed by the smaller 
towns. In 1647, the General Court, "for the promotion of 
common education, ordered, that every township after that the 
Lord had increased them to the number of fifty householders, 
should forthwith appoint a teacher * * whose wages should 
be paid as the prudentials of town should appoint." Every 
town of "a hundred householders should set up a grammar 
school * * to fit the children for the University.'" Here 
is the germ of which the New England culture of to-day is 
the rich fruitage. 

Harvard — our oldest American College — so named from 
Rev. John Harvard, who gave one-half his property and all 
his library to the College at Cambridge, had a small but 
very interesting beginning. There was not much wealth 
among the Colonists, two hundred and forty years ago, 
when this College began. "The magistrates led the way by 
a subscription among themselves of two hundred pounds, in 
books for the library. The comparatively wealthy followed 
with gifts of twenty and thirty pounds. The needy multi- 



AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 9 

tude sncceeded, like the widow of old, casting their mites 
into the treasury. A number of sheep were bequeathed by 
one man ; a quantity of cotton cloth, worth nine shillings 
presented by another ; a pewter flagon, worth ten shillings, 
by a third ; a fruit dish, a sugar spoon, a silver-tipt jug, one 
great set and one smaller set by others." 

In this institution, now Cambridge University, and which 
we have reason to fear has greatly departed from the faith, 
none could teach until he had first declared his "belief in the 
Scriptures of the Old and ISTew Testaments," which he must 
promise to open and explain to his pupils, with integrity and 
faithfulness according to the best light God should give him." 
The students were required to read the Scriptures twice daily, 
and to attend statedly upon God's ordinances, all through the 
College course ever^' class must be "practised in the Bible and 
catechetical divinity.'''' Harvard was really a school of the 
prophets, designed to furnish an able ministry of the Xew 
Testament. That indigent students might be aided, the Colo- 
nial Commissioners recommended that "every family be called 
upon to furnish voluntarily a peck of corn or twelve pence 
jn money, or its equivalent, or other commodities." And to 
this recommendation the poor Colonists are said to have 
cheerfully responded. Let struggling colleges take courage. 

In 1(552, steps were taken, chiefly by the clergy of that day, 
towards the founding of Yale College, of New Haven, "from 
a sincere regard to and zeal for upholding the Protestant reli- 
gion." The history of Harvard is substantially that of Yale, 
and indeed of nearly all the hundreds of colleges now dotted 
all over our land. Godly, Christly men gave them being, 
and in them they live and move. What have the enemies 
of the Bible, of the Church and her ministers, done to en- 
lighten and elevate and ennoble, not to say evangelize and 
save the masses ? Christo et Ecclesiae, said the pious found- 
ers of our first college, and we may inscribe the same motto 
upon every temple of sound learning in the land and in the 
world. 

Turning from this line of thought, we will reach the same 
conclusions if we look at the character of the men who put to- 



10 AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 

gether the frame-work of our Government. They believed 
in God, were trained under Cliristian inHuences, and were 
largely men of pronounced Christian faith. James Otis, who 
probably gave the key note to the Colonial Revolution, was 
educated by Rev. Jonathan Russell. In his thrilling Boston 
speech, in 1761, — antedating the Declaration of Independence 
fifteen years — he speaks of our "right to be free as a grant 
of Almighty God, who made all men naturally equal." 
Samuel Adams, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, made his house, evening and morning, a house 
of prayer — was a man of pronounced and strong Christian 
faith. Wirt, the biographer of the fiery and impassioned 
Patrick Henry, says of him that he was a sincere Christian. 
Ilis favorite religious books were Doddrige's Rise and Pro- 
gress of Religion in the Soul, Butler's Analogy of Religion 
natural and revealed, and Jen^-n's internal evidences of 
the Christian religion. "The Bible," said Henry, "is a book 
worth more than all other books that were ever printed." 
In his will, after disposing of his property to his family, 
"there is one thing he said, I Avish I could give them, and 
that is the Christian religion .'" John Hancock, whose name 
stands out so prominently among the signers of our Magna 
Charta, himself President of the Congress of 1776, was the 
son of a clergyman, and was distinguished for his piet}' as 
well as for his patriotism. In cheering his patriot companions, 
he said : "Let us play the men, for our God and for the cities 
of our God, let us humbly commit our righteous cause to 
the great Lord of the universe, who loveth righteousness and 
hateth iniquity. '- * * Although the fig tree shall not 
blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the labor of the 
olive shall fixil and the field shall yield no meat ; the flock 
shall be cut oft" from the fold, and there shall be no herd in 
the stall ; yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we will joy in the 
God of our salvation." The inspiration of faith animates 
the heart of John Hancock. John Adams, the first Vice 
President and Second President of the United States, was 
the son of a congregational deacon, and himself a member of 
the Church. He was a faithful attendant upon the public 



AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 11 

worship of God, and exerted himself to extend the beneficent 
influence of the Gospel. Jefferson said of him that "a man 
more perfectly honest never came from the hands of the Crea- 
tor." As our first Minister to England, in his address to 
the Queen, he spoke of the "seeds of piety sown by her king- 
dom in these colonies, as constituting the prosperity of na- 
tions and the happiness of the human race." Roger Sher- 
man, whose marble statue adorns our Capitol, of whose mem- 
ory New England will ever be proud, who was one of the 
strongest pillars of the revolution, was also an outspoken 
follower of Jesus, of whom Jefierson said, he was "a man 
who never said a foolish thing in his lifey He adorned his 
profession by applying Christian principle to every thing. 
John Witherspoon, President of Princeton College, whose 
name and fame are now being perpetuated by a marble statue 
in our Centennial grounds, by a Church rightly proud of his 
memory, was a minister of the Gospel of distinguished 
ability. Benjamin Franklin was trained in the school of 
Puritan piety, where were laid the foundation of his imper- 
ishable name and fame. Thus I might run through a long 
list of Revolutionarj^ and early names, and say many things 
of them illustrating the point before us. Thomas Jefferson, 
the penman of the Declaration of Independence, commonly 
regarded an exception to his cotemporaries in their religious 
and Christian faith, was not a disbeliever. In his first mes- 
sage, as President of the United States, he says : "I shall 
need the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who 
led our fathers as Israel of old, * * * who has covered our 
infancy with His Providence. * * I ask you to join me in 
supplication that He will so enlighten the minds of your 
servants, guide their counsels, &c., &c." "I tremble for my 
country when I reflect that God is just and that His justice 
cannot sleep forever." It is said that no man at the Capitol 
ever gave so much to build churches as Jefl^erson. He gave 
money to Bible societies, and was a regular contributor to 
the support of the clergy. He attended church with regu- 
larity — the Episcopal Church, and carried his prayer book 
with him — joining in the responses with the congregation. 



12 AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 

Though Jefferson evidently was not sound according to tlie 
received standard of orthodoxy, yet we cannot write him an 
Atheist, a scoffer, an enemy, or even a neglecter of religious 
ordinances. 

The heads and hearts and hands of these men laid the 
foundation and put together the frame work of this govern- 
ment. Let me ask. Is our nation a Christian nation ? Are the 
enemies of the Bible, the Church, the Sabbath — the enemies 
of our God and of His Christ-^our friends, or the friends of 
constitutional liberty ? When the immortal signers mutu- 
ally pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, 
it was with a firm reliance upon Divine Providence, and a 
reverent appeal to the Su[)reme Ruler of the world. The man 
who does not fear God must be feared — cannot be trusted. 
During the earnest and somewhat threatening debates that 
marked the Convention out of which our Constitution came, 
it was only after -prayer^ upon motion of Dr. Franklin, that 
the Convention was able to reach harmonious results. These 
men felt their need of the Divine wisdom, and called upon 
the clergy to pray. It is said, that after the Convention ad- 
journed, Rev. Dr. Miller, of Princeton, met Alexander Ham- 
ilton and said, "Mr. Hamilton, we are greatly grieved that 
the Constitution lias no recognition of God or the Christian 
religion." "I declare," said Hamilton, "we forgot it." Upon 
the attention of Washington being called to this omission, 
he said, "the path of true piety is so plain as to require but 
little political direction." The Constitution, however, whilst 
not as explicit as the friends of Christ desire, yet does, in 
various ways, directly and impliedly, affirm its Christian 
character. The time, we trust, will come when another 
amendment will put this point beyond all peradventure. 
The religious life of the rulers and people is however a 
better exposition of our Christian fliith than even a Consti- 
tutional acknowledgment would be. 

Scientists, falsely so called, may ignore God and sneeringly 
'juestion the efficacy of prayer," l)ut no American citizen can 
read the history of his country and for a moment question 
the faith of the men who anxiously laid the foundation 



AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 13 

upon which we are yet building. The first act of the first 
session of the Continental Congress, Sept. 6, 1776, was the 
passage of a resolution "inviting Rev. Mr. Duche to open 
Congress to-morrow morning with prayer, at Carpenter's 
Hall, at nine o'clock." And to-morrow morning Mr. Duche 
did not only pray, but read the thirty-first Psalm, with 
marked eifect upon the assembled wisdom of the nation. 
Mr. Duche's prayer is preserved and a vote of thanks was 
passed for his "excellent prayer." The opening prayer of 
every session of Congress is still reported in the official 
Record. 

The public worship of God was not ignored by the states- 
men of the Revolution. The records show that July 15, 
1775, Congress "resolved to attend service in a body^ on 
Thursda}'' next, both morning and afternoon.^'' Such resolution 
would have graced every subsequent Congress to the present. 

The scarcity of Bibles soon began to be felt by reason of 
the Revolution destroying our commerce with England, and 
Sept. il, 1777, Congress directed the Committee of Commerce 
to import twenty thousand copies of the Bible, from Holland, 
Scotland, or elsewhere. In 1782, Congress recommended, by 
resolution, to the inhabitants of the United States an edition 
of the Bible published by Rev. Mr. Aitken, and speak of liis 
undertaking "as pious and laudable, and subservient to the 
the interests of religion." In October 1778, Congress said : 

" Whereas, True religion and good morals are the only solid 
foundations of public liberty and happiness ; 

'■'• Resolved, That it hereby is earnestly recommended to the 
several States to take the most effectual measures for the en- 
couragement thereof and for the suppressing theatrical enter- 
tainments, horse racing, gaming, and such other diversions as 
are productive of idleness, dissipation and a general depravity 
of principles and manners. 

* * ^ * * 

'■'•Resolved, That any person holding an office under the 
United States, who shall act, promote, encourage, or attend 
such plays, be deemed unworthy to hold such office, and shall 
be accordingly dismissed." 

What would be the fate of such preamble and resolutions 



14 AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 

ill a modern Congress ! Verily, the fathers were vigilant to 
keep the fountain pure — to make the tree good. 

April 29, 1779, the day preceding the inauguration of Pres- 
ident Washington, Congress, the first assembled after the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution, '•'■Resolved^ That after 
the oath shall be administered to the President, Vice-Presi- 
dent and mendiers of the Senate, the Speaker and members 
of the House of Representatives, will accompany him to St. 
Paul's chapel to hear divine service performed by the chap- 
lain." And they did so accompany him, of that first Con- 
gress our own noble Muhlenberg being the honored Speaker. 
Previous to this first inauguration, on the morning of the 
day, a union prayer meeting was held by the various Chris- 
tian denominations of New York, asking God's blessing upon 
the President and the new government. A similar meeting 
was held in St. Paul's Lutheran Church of this city, of which 
the writer was then pastor, upon the evening of the day of 
President Lincoln's inau2;uration. It was a meeting; full of 
spiritual power. At the other end of the city an inaugural 
ball was in progress. 

l)uring this same first session of the first Congress under 
the Constitution, resolutions were unanimously adopted re- 
questing the I'resident of the United States to recommend 
a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, acknowledging 
with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty 
God," &c. Its adoption was urged by precedents from Holy 
Writ. Accordingly, President Washington did publicly pro- 
claim Thursday, the 26th day of November, 1789, to be reli- 
giously observed. We still have days of national humiliation, 
thanksgiving and praise. Let all the people praise the Lord. 

We might thus, at great length, run through these early 
records, but the search would only confirm what is already- 
plain. Ever}' candid mind can gather but one ins[)i ration 
from the whole of this early history — the inspiration of faith 
and godliness. The fathers feared God and wrou«:ht rio-ht- 
eousness. And shall not we, the children, be true to the 
faith of the fathers ? 

We may add, with interest, one or two of the ordei's of 



AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 15 

the Commander-in-Chief, during the Revolution. It was 
represented to Congress that profaneness generally, and par- 
ticularly cursing and swearing, shamefully prevailed in the 
army. The attention of Washington, by resolution, was 
called to it. In 1776, he issued the following order: "That 
the troops may have an opportunity of attending public 
worship * * the General in future excuses them from 
fatigue duty on Sundays * * ." Then referring to that 
"foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swear- 
ing," he hopes that "both officers and men will reflect that 
we can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our 
arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly." In his Val- 
ley Forge order, he directs that divine service be performed 
every Sunday at ten o'clock in each brigade with a chaplain, 
and that brigades without chaplains, will attend the place of 
worship nearest them ^ ^ ." Upon the surrender of 
Cornwallis, at Yorktown, October 21, 1781, which closed the 
war of the Revolution, Washington at once ordered religious 
services in commemoration of the restoration of peace. Our 
Washington was a man of faith and prayer, "True religion," 
said he, "affords to government its surest support." 

From our colonial days to the present, notwithstanding our 
growing worldliness and skepticism, God has been among us. 
The enemies of religion have not been able to obliterate the 
divine recognition in the Christian legislation and religious 
life of succeeding generations, among rulers and people. 

This hasty review reveals the efficient source and cause of 
our present greatness and glory. During our first century 
we have grown from thirteen Colonies to thirty-eight States, 
with territory enough to make as many more ; from three to 
more than forty millions of people ; from an Atlantic border 
strip, we have grown until the two great oceans wash our 
shores. In agriculture, manufactures, commerce, science, 
a,rt, education, we have steadily advanced. Our common 
schools, with a multitude of colleges and seminaries for 
higher education, open to all the people of every sex and 
color, are our national boast, and furnish a strong bulwark 
against our enemies. Sectarian education must be by sec- 



16 AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 

tarian contributions. National education whilst not sectar- 
ian, is yet, and must continue to be, religious. The Bible has 
not yet been banished, and our hope in God is that it never 
will be, from our common schools. In religion the jjcople 
have not fallen to sleep. Against about 1,950 churches, in 
1776, we have nearly 75,000, in 1876, representing every 
phase of religious life. In addition, our humane and reli- 
gious agencies are well-nigh innumerable. The well-being 
of man and beast — our charities are cosmopolitan under 
gospel influences. The seed was scattered by our godly 
fathers, and this is its rich fruitage. Ours is a Christian civ- 
ilization, defective as our life may be — the outgrowth of the 
institutions founded upon the Bible — God's revealed will. 

"Ileve we raise our Ebenezer, 
llitlier by Thy help we 've come." 

As in the past, our blessings flow from these sources, so this 
review suggests the hope of our security for the future. We 
are yet 3'oung as a Republic. Other nations have survived 
much longer than the days of our years, and then have died. 
There is no talismanic power in our union, nor in our wis- 
dom, nor in our arms, to make us strong against right and 
against God. We shall live much longer than we deserve to 
live. Our King is merciful and slow to anger. But "the na- 
tion and kingdom that will not serve Him, shall be utterly 
wasted." The nation's life hangs upon the nation's faith. 
None can harden themselves against Him and prosper. Our 
Bible, our Sabbath, our Church, our godly rulers and godly 
people, are our hope, through God our Rock. If God be for 
us, who can be against us ? If God be against us, who can 
save us? Wrong doing has in it inherently the elements of 
self-destruction. Whatsoever nations, as well as men, sow, 
they shall also reap. This is God's universal law. Our dan- 
ger lies in the elements of evil incident to our growth, and 
to the heterogeneous character of our people. The protec- 
tion that we guarantee to all in the rights of conscience, 
develops men who have no conscience toward God or their 
neighbor. Men of the baser sort, "without God, and having 



AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 17 

no hope" — not caring to have any. The enemies of the Bible, 
of the Sabbath, of the Church, and of moral and religious 
agencies are the enemies of the Republic. Upon the Chris- 
tian people of the land rests the great responsibility of pre- 
serving and transmitting this rich heritage of our fathers. 
We are no less citizens than Christians — members of the 
body politic, as well as of the kingdom that shall never be 
moved. The Church and the State cannot, in this sense, be 
divorced. We must render to Csesar the things that are Cae- 
sar's, and to God the things that are God's. There is no in- 
consistency between the ballot box and the communion table. 
In our Government, the people being the sovereigns, the 
connection between the two kingdoms — the temporal and 
spiritual is inseparable. The sin of too many good people 
has been to surrender the affairs of government to men 
scheming, unprincipled, and ungodly. It is the duty of 
Christian patriots to choose godly rulers — to have righteous 
laws and a righteous execution of them. Righteousness ex- 
alteth a nation, and the responsibility of defending and pre- 
serving our institutions of civil and religious freedom, is 
with the godly citizen. 

This review gives hope of another and yet another centen- 
nial. True, we have among us corrupt men, and, from the 
days of the patriot sires to the present, there have ever been 
unfaithful men in public and private life. To the dawn of 
the millennium there will be. When we consider the im- 
mense growth of our Government, the corruptions of these 
times are not greater than they were a hundred years ago. 
The human heart and life average no greater depravity now 
than then. !N"or is the religious faith and life of the children 
less than was that of our fathers. The sacramental host, an 
immense and ever growing multitude, yet with unshaken 
faith and unfaltering courage, with an ever increasing intelli- 
gence, rallies still around the Bible, the Sabbath, the Church. 
The decay of the things in which good people differ marks 
our age. The old lines over which great battles have been 
fought are fading under the increasing light of the growing 
centuries. The Saviour's intercessory prayer, "that they all 



18 AN HOUR WITH THE FATHERS. 

may be one," wo have reason to hope, is more nearly fulfilled 
than since the days of the infant apostolic Church. But in 
the midst of all the religious and irreligious agitations of 
these sifting times, not one grain of truth is lost — only the 
chaff. The wrapping over which men have been contending, 
has been detached and carried into the wilderness. Against 
the Church upon the Rock, the gates of hell have not prevailed, 
and will not. Our children and our children's children will 
enjoy the blessings that centre in our Bible and in our flag, 
and whilst we sing the "new song," the coming generations 
will acknowledge God in another and yet another centennial 
exceeding this in glory. God is our refuge and strength, and 
this God shall be our God forever and ever, and of His king- 
dom there shall be no end. 



p D -6a 1 



•o-' ..l-^-, \ 















"-^0^ 



• .V 




"oK 



^^•n^. 



3 V!. 



■a/ <^ 

o *sTo^ ,0-' -^ 





















v^' 



o V 






^^ . 








-^^0^ 



1^ . « • 








vOv% 






^^--.^ 











o • * ■ 




•^0^ 











•^0^ 











C, vP 




^^-n^ 



V .i.vc 







/% 




C, vP 








.^^ .' 



: ^-^SBBp^no^, ^o^ ij 






_^^ 



IIOV1968 





